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To be honest I think we are pretty sure that none of the inflammatory cytokines are sufficiently out of line in ME/CFS to explain anything much in relation to symptoms. The best one can say is that slight changes might be some indirect clue to something else. But in general no consistent...

The study Mady Hornig did with Ian Lipkin showed some very slight differences in one or two cytokines. I think IL-17 came up as raised. Bu the main finding was that for CFS as a whole there was little or no difference. There was a difference amongst the CFS patients according to how long they...

The theme for the conference is ‘Children First – Ethics, Morality and Advocacy in Childhood’ and there will be a selection of workshops and talks taking place throughout three days that will explore this crucial area. I wonder if they have any advocates billed to speak. Certain people seem to...

Must remember to wash some time next week.

All that universities need to do is to publish their academics' work for free on their own university website (costs nothing). They could also have a rule that their academics would only cite papers published the same way (plus open access for an interim period). Elsevier then goes to the wall...

I realise it is not going to affect you yet but what I was meaning was that pretty much whenever an academic without vested interests in psychotherapy has been made aware of PACE they have agreed it is nonsense. So far there may only be about 100 of us and precious few in the UK, but i think...

Looks like no, then?

Since when did care become 'biopsychosocial'? I suppose it consists of a real human nurse giving you a pill with the deeply comforting words ' time for your morning dose, Jack'. The whole prospectus is just a mouthing of meaningless gibberish.

It sounds as if your case is a useful 'exception that probes the rule' @Woolie. And there is no doubt that many diseases with raging cytokines are associated with fatigue. But @Snow Leopard is making a very good point that shows the weakness of the 'cytokine induced sickness behaviour' story. In...

'Trish Groves (MBBS, MRCPsych) trained in medicine and psychiatry before going to The BMJ in 1989. She is now director of academic outreach and advocacy for BMJ, editor in chief of the online only journal BMJ Open, and honorary deputy editor of The BMJ.' What a Lilliputian world we live in...

Well, his letter certainly is not an application of the scientific method - more the method of the Catholic Church - believe what you are told by the wise looking after you and don't ask questions. The PACE trial would cause no satisfaction to doctors and patients in other branches of medicine...

I have sort of already done that this week but it may need doing again!

It is interesting to read this having just looked at the SMC promotion video. Presumably somebody writing for Nature is doing the same thing of going out and getting the hot story just like SMC, but actually doing it properly. Where is the balanced punchy article written by journalists who have...

A few technical slips but the general feel of it seems to me very fair, measured but also sharp. To have piece like this effectively say nobody really believes PACE any more is quite a change.

Actually this is all done by the standard somatic sensory and motor pathways. Conscious control only kicks in for fine tuning. Spinal reflexes, cerebellum and brain stem control most automatic actions, but automatic should not be confused with autonomic. The autonomic system innervates blood...

It is very instructive to watch this video. I see a group of people being smarmy, condescending, self-congratulatory, arrogant and in many cases, embarrassingly naïve. The woman from Imperial epitomises their tacky commercial approach which has now engulfed UCL as well. Adam Finn and all the...

We find that too. Except it is sometimes so ridiculous you have to laugh.

By Jesus this guy can blather: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/henrik.vogt It is all so old and tired and stale and empty. How do people get excited about the old and tired and empty? Beats me.

Nope, I have heard nothing from them yet.

That does not seem so very different when NICE says: If they are tired, they should tailor their activities to what they can manage comfortably.